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111 Blacked Out Pages Is How Much the DOJ Wants You to Know About Your Right to Privacy

Thursday, January 17, 2013

111 Blacked Out Pages Is How Much the DOJ Wants You to Know About Your Right to Privacy

by

Abby Zimet

In some kind of sick, grim joke, the Department of Justice has responded to an ACLU lawsuit seeking its guidelines on when Americans can be surreptitiously, warrantlessly tracked with 111 pages of the requested documents almost entirely redacted, thus essentially offering a middle finger to those asking law enforcement officials to set limits on their own power, or even tell the rest of us what those powers are. The lawsuit sought clarification on how the DOJ interprets a 2011 Supreme Court decision that banned the FBI from using GPS technology to track Americans without a warrant.

"Privacy law needs to keep up with technology, but how can that happen if the government won’t even tell us what its policies are?...While we wait for courts to weigh in, how much privacy do Americans have in their movements? Exactly as much as law enforcement agents believe they must give us."

Further

Lord, what would John Lennon have made of the Trump monster? Marking Thursday's 36th anniversary of Lennon's murder, Yoko Ono posted a plea for gun control, calling his death "a hollowing experience" and pleading, "Together, let's bring back America, the green land of Peace." With so many seeking solace in these ugly times, mourns one fan, "Oh John, you really should be here." Lennon conceded then, and likely would now, "Reality leaves a lot to the imagination."